[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 183 (Tuesday, December 8, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H13552]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 PUT AMERICA BACK TO WORK AND REBUILD AMERICA'S DECREPIT INFRASTRUCTURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, the President brought the jobs summit to 
a very unfortunate and, unfortunately, ill-informed close in his 
summary statement.
  The President is skeptical about shovel-ready projects. He said the 
term ``shovel-ready.'' Let's be honest. It doesn't always live up to 
its billing. Well, if he is talking about other than infrastructure, he 
is right.
  The Department of Energy managed to commit a tiny fraction of the 
money in the stimulus bill, and that which they have committed has 
created thousands of jobs. Yeah. Unfortunately, they are jobs in China 
of making windmills that will be shipped to the United States of 
America. Not exactly what we had in mind.
  Maybe it's the tax cuts all across America. People every week are 
grateful for their tax cuts. No. Actually, they don't know that they 
get a minuscule reduction in their withholdings, and that's what is 
supposed to rebuild our economy. There was seven times as much money 
for tax cuts as there was for transportation infrastructure.
  Now let's examine the President's statement a little further. I think 
he is very, very ill-advised by a prejudiced group of economic advisers 
who, for some reason, were frightened by infrastructure at a young age, 
perhaps. Whatever the reason, they hate it--plain and simple--because 
the fact is, as the previous gentleman said, 4 percent of the funding, 
that which was spent and is already committed and is underway in 
infrastructure, has created 25 percent of the jobs. All of that money 
will be spent out by next summer. There are hundreds of billions of 
dollars in other programs that aren't being spent out so well, but the 
shovel-ready transportation infrastructure projects are going forward.
  We had a report last week. There is $49 billion more in bridge and 
highway projects. We have 160,000 bridges that need reconstruction 
across America. That's steel. That's concrete. That's construction 
jobs. That's engineering work. There is no long lead time. There is no 
lengthy environmental review. We are replacing or rebuilding things 
that are already in place. In addition to that, there are many other 
road and highway projects of great merit. That can be committed within 
120 days--$49 billion. It could take place next construction season--
$16 billion in intermodal, port and other access issues.
  Then perhaps this will get the attention out at the White House: $20 
billion in transit. We are killing people on our transit systems 
because of the outmoded, decrepit infrastructure we have. There is an 
$80 billion backlog. When you begin to fill that backlog, what you can 
do within a day in some places, like the Chicago Transit Authority, 
which spent a quarter of $1 billion in 30 days, which is all the money 
they got--they spent it in 30 days because they have a decrepit system. 
They ordered things that create a huge multiplier effect and jobs 
across the economy--transit vehicles, buses. Then people who make parts 
for buses have jobs. We have ``buy America'' provisions so the jobs 
aren't going to China like the DOE grants are. These are the kinds of 
investments we need to be making. These things work.
  Now, why won't his advisers wake up and tell him the truth?
  Most of the jobs, the real jobs--the private-sector jobs--that were 
created by this last so-called ``stimulus,'' were in transportation 
infrastructure. The money has been successfully spent and obligated. We 
can give him those statistics. I defy them to go to any other part of 
that bill other than the money that kept teachers working and other 
things that helped the States or the tax cuts where the money has spent 
out at such a rapid rate.
  So it's time to reorient the thinking down there on the economic team 
at the White House. If we want to put America back to work next year, 
we need to dedicate more funds for rebuilding our decrepit 
infrastructure across this country. Get the huge multiplier effect we 
get with that. We have a total of close to $80 billion of projects 
ready to go in 120 days. These aren't just your resurfacing things like 
we saw last year. These are major projects--bridge replacements and 
major work on transit systems--that are ready to go, that are shovel-
ready to go. No lie there.
  I hope some of his advisers are listening, that they'll look at the 
facts and will send the President a corrective memo on these issues.

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